Former Vogue Editor Kirstie Clements: Models Eat Kleenex to Stay Slim

When Kirstie Clements was fired after spending 25 years as the editor-in-chief at Vogue Australia, she wasn't going to leave without a bang. She's just published a bold tell-all book in which she shares some of the deepest secrets of the fashion world. The book, titled The VogueFactor, sheds some light into the dark corners of an industry that often appears to be both glamorous and flawless.

One of the most disturbing revelations Clements offers in the book is that she saw models consuming paper tissues in order to curb hunger pains. Although that doesn't surprise me one bit (mostly because even non-models are willing to risk lung cancer to remain slim), the former editor's testimonial offers a grueling account of the harsh cult of slimness that permeates the industry.

"One of the most shocking claims to come out of the book is that models still frequently starve themselves to stay super skinny, often resorting to eating tissues to help them feel full. Clements details a lunch date with an unidentified Russian model who claimed her roommate is a fit model 'so she is in hospital on a drip a lot of the time.'”

Recounting a Vogue shoot in Marrakesh during her 13-year tenure as editor, Clements wrote that she didn't once see the top model eat a single meal for the three-day gig. Even worse, Clements recounted that on the last day of the job, the model could hardly hold herself up or keep her eyes open. She had also penned that “when a model who was getting good work in Australia starved herself down two sizes in order to be cast in the overseas shows … the Vogue fashion office would say she’d become ‘Paris thin.’”

Although I'm glad Clements is calling out the fashion world for its tolerance of physical and mental health problems for its employees, where was her outrage while she was working within the industry itself? As the editor of Vogue, why did she allow these practices to take place and indirectly support this cult of extreme slimness by remaining silent?

What do you think? Are you glad Clements revealed these abuses or are you angry the former Vogue editor did nothing to stop them?